6 Answers

This is one of my fears. I am still in school and we have strict procedures to go to the E.R right away. I am curious on what the real work does.

Confirm that you would like to select this answer as the "Best Answer" to your question. This will bring this answer to to top and be highlighted as "Best Answer". You can always change this if a better answer is given.

Every office should have an OSHA binder with specific instructions on an instrument stick. It falls into the same category of getting a needle poke. In my office, we even have a paper posted in our sterile room of step by step instructions of what to do, even which pages are needed out of our OSHA binder (as it all must be logged). I have had a needle stick and I immediately filled out paperwork and was off to the ER. I had follow up visits for 6-9 months of blood draws. My patient had no known diseases, but being safe than sorry eased my mind. In Oregon, this fell under workers’ comp so it was all paid for. I also learned my lesson about not being in a hurry especially when you are handling sharp things! At the time of my incident I was at an office seeing up to 18 patients per day, which is why I was moving too quickly. I am no longer there and haven’t had another accident to date.

Confirm that you would like to select this answer as the "Best Answer" to your question. This will bring this answer to to top and be highlighted as "Best Answer". You can always change this if a better answer is given.

We have very strict OSHA guidelines in Oregon. Each office is required to have a protocol set-up for any potential exposure. In our office the person who was exposed goes to ER or urgent care ASAP and the ‘host’ of the exposure is asked to go for blood draw to check for hep and HIV. The patient is not required to go but we must ask them. Our office pays for the cost of patients appt too.

Confirm that you would like to select this answer as the "Best Answer" to your question. This will bring this answer to to top and be highlighted as "Best Answer". You can always change this if a better answer is given.

I stuck myself with a needle once. I was numbing a patient for SRP and I stuck myself in the hand trying to recap it after injecting the patient. It was a pretty involved process. The first thing I did was relook at his health history to make sure he didn’t have any diseases transmissable through the blood. Thank goodness he didn’t but maybe he didn’t divulge all his medical history or was unaware he had something, you know? Scary! Plus I was pregnant at the time so I freaked out! Next my boss explained what happened to the patient and asked more in depth medical questions and he said he had no other issues other than what was in his history. And I didn’t stick him after I stuck myself so he didnt need to get tested. Then I had to leave work right away and go to a clinic across the street for blood tests. I had to fill out an incident report explaining the situation that my boss had to send to his insurance company. I got a phone call from the insurance company a few days later and had to explain the whole situation to them. Then I had to do follow up tests again 3 months, 6 months and 12 months after the incident. If I failed to do the blood tests on time then my bosses insurance wouldn’t pay for it and I would get the bill. He was upset for awhile because he said stuff like that makes the cost of his practice insurance go up. But everything turned out ok in the end. All tests came back negative.

Confirm that you would like to select this answer as the "Best Answer" to your question. This will bring this answer to to top and be highlighted as "Best Answer". You can always change this if a better answer is given.

Got stuck with a cavitron tip pretty deep once…freak accident…dirty tip left behind by another practitioner…I was not happy…Dr wouldn’t ask the patient to test…so I went thru a series of tests to rule out exposure at the offices expense, and my time :/

Confirm that you would like to select this answer as the "Best Answer" to your question. This will bring this answer to to top and be highlighted as "Best Answer". You can always change this if a better answer is given.

I stuck myself with a needle once, and it was pretty much exactly what everyone else said. There was a language barrier with the patient, so she didn’t wind up going for testing. So I had blood tests that day, then 3, 6 and 12 months later. I was also on antivirals for a while, I can’t remember how long. Lots of paperwork, so I’m much more careful when re-capping now! Our assistant got stuck with an endo file, but the patient WAS able to go be tested with her that time. When they both turned up fine, I think she just had to go back in three months for a double check.

Confirm that you would like to select this answer as the "Best Answer" to your question. This will bring this answer to to top and be highlighted as "Best Answer". You can always change this if a better answer is given.